Runaway
Plot We pan down from the night sky to Seagle's Mini Mart, where a young blonde woman, presumably in her 20's, in a blue blouse and jeans is walking out of the building with a plastic bag containing groceries. She is talking to someone on her phone. Woman: Yeah, I'm on my way back now. (rolls eyes as the person on the other side of the phone speaks) Yeah, I'll be careful. Bye. She hangs up and puts her phone in her pocket and walks to the right. We zoom out slightly to reveal a man wearing a full black outfit, including a mask, hiding behind a bush, watching the woman. He pops out of the bush and pulls out a gun, aiming it at the woman, who drops her bag of groceries. Man: Money. Now. I don't want any trouble. Woman: Uh- I- O-Okay, okay. As she begins to pull out her purse, Captain Nemesis flies down and grabs the man by the collar, throwing his gun away. He flies up a few feet. sweating terrified: Whoa, whoa, man! I'm afraid of heights! Nemesis: Is that so? Man: Yeah, yeah! Put me down! I'll leave 'er alone if you want. Nemesis: What? And I'm just gonna let you go? The man nods, grinning. Nemesis: Hmm... no. He drops the man as he cries. We see through the man's point of view as he is mere centimeters above the ground. He suddenly stops falling. The camera rotates and zooms out to show Captain Nemesis holding the man's collar. picking up her bag of groceries: (crying a little) Thank you, Captain Nemesis. (sniffles) Thank you. Nemesis: Just doing my job, ma'am. The woman takes out a five-dollar note from her purse, handing it to Captain Nemesis. Nemesis: Oh, I can't accept this. Woman: No, no. I insist. (smiles) Captain Nemesis smiles back and takes the money. Nemesis: It means a lot to me, ma'am. Thanks. We then see a news broadcast by Will Harangue the following morning. Will: It has been three days since the mysterious disappearance of Ben Tennyson. (as he says this, a picture of Ben pops up on the top right corner of the screen) The BPD has sent search parties to look for him. Unfortunately, there have been no leads. One can only dream of where he might be. Magnus is thrown against the wall of a cave, grunting. We pan to the left to see a blue Vulpimancer facing him, growling. Behind him, Ben as Copy Copy is surrounded by a group of five Vulpimancers. Copy: Close your ears, Magnus! Magnus nods and closes his ears as the blue Vulpimancer approaches him. Copy Copy takes a deep breath and then emits a sonic scream at the Vulpimancers. They start whimpering, closing their ears. Copy Copy raises the pitch of his sonic scream. The Vulpimancers yelp in pain before falling to the ground unconscious. Copy Copy stops screaming, and then smiles. Copy: There, that wasn't so hard, was it? Magnus: Says the guy who has the Omnitrix. Copy: So, um, are we gonna eat them, or... Magnus: Vulpimancer meat can't be digested by humans. Get rid of them. Copy: I know exactly who'd be able to do just that. He is covered in blue light. When it disappears, Orbit Man stands in his place. Man: Orbit Man! His hands ignite with a white aura as he uses his powers to lift the Vulpimancers off the ground, walking out of the cave as they hover behind him. He walks to the edge of the platform on which the cave is located, then raises his arms, throwing them in front of him. The Vulpimancers hover off the platform. Orbit Man lowers his arms, making the Vulpimancers fall into the void. He looks down at the void beneath him before reverting back to Ben in a flash of blue light, walking back into the cave. Ben: We won't have to leave again, right? I actually like this place. Magnus: You kidding? I'm tired of moving. This is our home, whether we like it or not. Ben: Oh, good. I'm still hungry, though. Magnus: We need to find a village. They'll have food that should be able to sustain us for a week. Ben: They have villages in the Null Void? Magnus: As I've said before, as much as it looks like a prison, some people call it home. Ben: Yeah, okay... Let's just go get food. We see Sevenseven's ship from the front entering the parking bay. The camera rotates to the side of the ship. The door opens and a ramp comes down. Tetrax and Sevenseven come out of the ship. Tetrax: (sighs in frustration) He's not on Galvan Prime. Why is he hiding? Sevenseven: Ghifyf ogu dyiip. Tetrax: I know. Right now, Ben could be dead and our efforts mean nothing. We need to find out more about Captain Nemesis. He's the reason we're in this situation in the first place! Sevenseven: Hgepy euf ihfoe hfehi. Tetrax: We're not stealthy enough. Sevenseven: Wtady asio dydd? Tetrax: Oh, that's right! Hopefully they've perfected it. We cut a few minutes ahead to the lab, where Blukic and Driba are working on a small cube-like device with a button on the top. Tetrax and Sevenseven enter the room and walk towards the two Galvans. Tetrax: Blukic, Driba, how fast can you make an invisibility device? Driba: Actually, we're already finished. He hands him the cube. Blukic: We haven't tested it yet. Tetrax: How long will it be able to last? Driba: Six, seven minutes? Blukic: If you let us check it for bugs, we can try to extend it. Sevenseven: Vweg idwg ihwi ihei. Driba: Ooh, that reminds me! We made something for Sevenseven! He walks to the back of the room and reaches for a small collar on the table. He walks towards Sevenseven and hands it to him. Driba: Put it on. putting the collar on: Gugdu wkdc paydo- for? Tetrax's eyes widen. Sevenseven: What? Tetrax: You're speaking English! Blukic: Actually, he's still speaking Sotoraggian. The collar just translates it. Tetrax: I knew that. I just can't believe it. Nobody has been able to translate the Sotoraggian language, not even Azmuth! You two have actually made a mark on history! Blukic and Driba high-five. Driba: It wasn't really that difficult. We see a large village in the Null Void, with small houses and wheat farms dotting its platform. It is partially covered by a smaller platform above it. The camera focuses on an open area around a fire, where Ben and Magnus are talking to a male blue-skinned alien farmer, who hands them a basket filled with green-colored food which greatly resembles fried chicken drumsticks. Magnus hands him three pieces of Taydenite. Ben: Ooh, chicken! Magnus: It isn't chicken. Trust me, I thought the same thing when I first saw it. Ben: (groans) I'm sick of alien food. Farmer: 'Alien' is a relative term. Ben: Yeah, whatever. He notices an Arburian Pelarota curled up in the corner, a little away from the fire. Ben: What's that Rollaway doing over there? Farmer: The Arburian Pelarota? He escaped from Incarcecon. Magnus: So, you're aiding a criminal. Farmer: No, it's not like that! He was wrongly imprisoned, kidnapped from his home. Magnus: And you believe that... why? as Ben walks towards the Arburian Pelarota: Why would he be hiding here scared, then? Ben: Uh, hello? The Arburian Pelarota partially uncurls. Ben: I don't mean to bother you, but we heard what was goin' on. We can protect you. Pelarota: I don't want to put you in harm's way. Ben shows him the Hero Watch on his wrist. Ben: I can take care of myself. He moves out of the way and points at Magnus. Ben: ...And my friend's a Plumber. The Arburian Pelarota fully uncurls and gets up. He looks at Ben, then Magnus, then Ben again. Pelarota: Alright. Thank you for offering to help me. Magnus: Now, wait a second. Why are you being so quick to trust this guy? For all we know, he could be a spy. Plus, we don't have enough food to go around. Ben: He's helpless, Magnus. Plumbers are supposed to help people. Magnus: Technically, we only really have to protect the galaxy from threats. Ben: Oh, come o- Suddenly, screeching sounds are heard. Everyone looks up and sees gold humanoid robots on Null Guardians. They are holding blasters. Magnus: They're Incarcecon guards! Guard: Surrender the Arburian Pelarota or suffer the consequences! They start firing lasers from their blasters. Ben twists the dial of the Hero Watch. A hologram of a ghost-resembling alien appears on the emblem. Ben presses the dial and is engulfed in blue light. When it fades, an alien made of pale brown smoke with large arms and a tail in place of his legs hovers in Ben's place. Ben: We gotta get out of here! Magnus equips his grappling hook and fires the grapple a few platforms above. Ben tries to grab the Arburian Pelarota, but his hand goes through him. Ben: Whoa, what? Pelarota: You're made of smoke. Ben flies into the air. The laser blasts go through him. Ben: What can this guy do? He extends his hand with force, emitting smoke. Ben: SmokeStack's a good name for this one! We see through a guard's sensors. It can hardly see at all, the words 'Target Lost' popping up on screen. We return to normal view as SmokeStack fires more smoke. A flash of blue light engulfs SmokeStack. When it dissipates, Cosmic Man hovers in his place. Man: Cosmic Man! He flies down to the Arburian Pelarota and grabs him before flying away as fast as he can. The camera follows them as he looks back. The smoke is starting to dissipate. The camera pans back to the village as the smoke clears out. Guard 2: We've lost the prisoner. Guard 3: Take the villagers instead. The Null Guardians descend into the village. We cut to Ben and Magnus' home a while later, where the two of them and the Arburian Pelarota are sitting around a fire. Pelarota: Once again, thank you for saving me. Ben: No prob. What exactly happened to you, anyway? Pelarota: My name is Fadpoc. I used to live far away from here, in peace. I got here after my planet was destroyed by the Incurseans. Ben: The who? Magnus: War-crazy alien frogs, simply put. Fadpoc: Admittedly, I was actually sent here because I was a criminal. Magnus jumps up, pointing at Fadpoc. Magnus: Aha! I told you we couldn't trust him! Fadpoc: No, it's not what you were think! I had to help my family! We were poor. Magnus sits down. Fadpoc: I tried to find a way out but I couldn't, so I made a new life here, but I was captured by Morgg. Ben: Morgg? Who's that? Magnus: Incarcecon prison warden. So, you were saying? Fadpoc: I didn't even get told about my crimes! I was just asked to mine Kormite. Magnus: Okay, now I'm interested. You sure Morgg knows about this? Fadpoc: He doesn't just know, he wants the Kormite. Magnus: It's a very powerful power source. In the wrong hands, it could kill someone. Ben: What I wanna know is how you escaped. Aren't these places supposed to be heavily-guarded? Fadpoc: A riot broke out when we were mining. While the guards were distracted, I took the chance to escape. We see the prison from the outside, blue walls surrounding the compound, floating on a rock. We cut to an office in the prison. We see a male Spheroid, a female Apploplexian and a robotic yellow male alien. They are facing a figure hidden by the camera. From what we can observe, he is wearing a blue outfit. Figure: It seems we're missing a few prisoners, even after we sent out the guards. I suppose this is the time for you to shine, Omega Squad. Don't fail me. The Apploplexian growls. Back in Bellwood, we see City Hall's exterior. We zoom into the bushes by the building, where Tetrax and Sevenseven are hiding. The latter is holding the invisibility device from earlier. Tetrax: Remember the plan, Sevenseven? Sevenseven: Yes. Get inside City Hall, access traffic cameras from the day Ben went missing, and then once we find what we need, we download it into a USB drive. Tetrax: You sound much better in English. Sevenseven sighs in annoyance, then presses the button on the device, turning them invisible. They fade, leaving behind blue outlines of their figures. They walk up the steps and, as they approach the sliding doors, enter the building, startling the guards. 1, to Guard 2: Did you see that? 2: This town's freaky, deal with it. Tetrax leans against the wall, listening to the guards' conversation. Tetrax: (whispering) Come on, we don't want anyone else to know we're here. We cut ahead to the two reaching a reaching a room on one of the lower floors, with a sign on the door that says "CONTROL ROOM". Tetrax and Sevenseven open the door and enter. It is a large room with security footage from within the building to traffic cameras all over town. Upon hearing the door creak open, the guard bolts out of his seat, trying to find Tetrax and Sevenseven. However, since they are invisible, he can't see them. Guard: Where are you? C-Come out! Tetrax walks towards the guard and pinches his neck in a certain way, knocking him out. Tetrax sets him down on the ground. As if on cue, Sevenseven scurries over to the monitor, pulling out a USB drive and inserting it into the side of the monitor. He looks through the files and finds traffic footage from April 23rd, at around 9 AM. Sevenseven presses 'Download'. The progress bar fills up and Sevenseven grabs the USB drive and runs out of the room, followed by Tetrax. Soon after, the guard regains consciousness and slowly gets up. He looks at the computer screen. Guard: I was attacked by ghosts! Help! We see the Omega Squad heading towards Ben and Magnus' cave on Null Guardians. Inside, Ben, Magnus and Fadpoc are asleep. The roof crumbles as the squad arrives, getting off the Null Guardians. This startles Ben, Magnus and Fadpoc, who get up. The Spheroid opens his mouth and spits slime at Fadpoc, trapping him in place. Magnus: Who are you? as Ben is scrolling through his aliens: My name's Limus, the Appoplexian is Ira, and- Magnus: -Not what I meant. Charcoal Man's hologram pops up on the Hero Watch's dial. Ben slams it down and is engulfed in blue light. Ben hovers in a dark blue background with light blue bubbles pulsating rapidly behind him. His skin cracks and fire ignites within those cracks. Magma spreads throughout his body, originating from the Hero Watch. As the magma reaches his eyes, they reshape as his irises disappear. His head sets on fire as his hair disappears. His feet reshape as his ring and pinky fingers merge, setting on fire. The Hero Watch symbol pops up on his chest as he poses, completing the transformation. Man: Charcoal Man! Charcoal Man holds a fireball in his hand, it growing larger as the flames roar. Throwing it towards the slime covering Fadpoc, it burns off the slime and creates an explosion, the slime landing everywhere. Magnus: Ben, cover your ears, now! Magnus takes out a sonic pitch whistle, everyone instantly covering their ears. Magnus blows it as Ira shouts in pain, the sound of the whistle being too much for her. Charging towards Magnus, she grabs hold of it and shatters the whistle, rapidly grabbing Magnus by the collar. Fadpoc turns to see this, curling up into a sphere. He rolls towards Ira, ramming her away from Magnus. Man: Magnus, are you okay? (helps Magnus up) Magnus: Yeah. Thanks. The yellow robot-like alien holds his hands up in the air, absorbing darkness from the cave. Man: That doesn't look good. Fadpoc: Jolitians can manipulate darkness. If his blasts touch us, it would slowly but surely destroy us. The Jolitian, as Fadpoc called it, fires a blast of darkness at Fadpoc, creating a black portal of some sort below him. Black energy ignites around the Jolitian's hands, indicating that he is holding up the portal. Charcoal Man sprints towards Fadpoc and, with great effort, tries to pull Fadpoc out of the portal. The black energy around the Jolitian's hands intensify, pulling Fadpoc down further. Magnus grabs his blaster and fires a blast at the Jolitian, making the energy around his hands disappear. Limus: Edink, the portal! Man: Fadpoc, grab onto my hand! Charcoal Man propels himself in the air using his fire, sticking his hand out to the sinking Fadpoc. Fadpoc grips onto Charcoal Man's hand, slowly being carried out of the portal. Now using both hands, Charcoal Man carries Fadpoc barely above the portal. Magnus blasts Edink with his laser lance, the portal of darkness closing up as Edink loses concentration. Fadpoc: Magnus, watch out! Magnus swiftly turns around to see Ira grab onto his bag of weapons. He runs towards her and tries to grab it back. Magnus: (growls at Ira) Nobody takes my weapons. Ira: Too late. Ira overpowers Magnus, ripping the bag away from him and tossing it out of the cave. Angry, Magnus tries to charge at Ira, who sticks her foot out and trips Magnus. Getting back up, he swings his fist at Ira, Ira catching onto his hand and pulling his whole entire body onto the ground. Charcoal Man sends a flurry of punches towards Limus, pushing him backwards with each punch. Spitting at Charcoal Man, Limus and Charcoal Man are blown away by an explosion; caused by the contact of the slime and fire. Fadpoc: (shields Magnus while curling into a sphere) Oh great, Magnus is down. The floo- The ground starts to break apart, Fadpoc rolling away. Limus and Charcoal Man are both standing on a falling platform, both crawling towards the ledge of the ground. Charcoal Man grips onto the ledge, Limus grabbing onto his leg. Shaking his leg, Charcoal Man kicks Limus into the void. Man: Sayonara, sucker! Or... spitter. Hm, that's a good name. Charcoal Man whips his head around to stare at an angry Ira towering over him, a sudden force slamming against his head and slamming him into the void. Ira: (snickers) He never knew what hit him. We see Charcoal Man slowly drifting into the void, trying to push away from it. The flames surrounding his body roar, growing larger as he finds himself flying at a slow pace. Struggling, he eventually reaches the cave, looking around. Fadpoc and Edink are missing. Ira is still there, holding Magnus by the neck, choking him. Ira: Weak. You can't even defend yourself. With great force, she stabs through his suit, making a hole in it. She tears open his suit, revealing Magnus in his civilian clothing, rather old-looking. It consists of a dark green two-button collared shirt and brown pants. Magnus: How is that even possible?! Ira: Taydenite-tipped claws, scum. Prepare to die. Enraged, Charcoal Man smacks the Hero Watch symbol, engulfed in blue light. When it fades, a large bat-like creature named Stumblebat stands in his place. Stumblebat: Uh, whoa... Okay. He starts flapping his wings. A large vortex is formed by his wings, Magnus and Ira both hovering above the ground - inside the vortex. Magnus and Ira both hit the floor, the vortex gone as Stumblebat's wings had stopped flapping. Stumblebat: Let's see if this guy's strong. He runs towards Ira as she drops Magnus to the ground. He punches her in the stomach but instantly pulls back his arm in pain. Stumblebat: Ow! That hurts! A LOT! Ira trips him over and cracks her knuckles. Stumblebat gets up and takes a deep breath. Magnus and Ira suddenly start suffocating. Stumblebat raises his eyebrows. Magnus: You... (gasps) idiot... You absorbed all the air. Stumblebat: Oh, sorry. He then exhales and charges at Ira, who grabs him by the neck. Amidst her distraction, Magnus reaches for his last weapon, a standard Plumber blaster attached to the pouch of his destroyed Plumber Suit. He fires the blast that barely hits Stumblebat's skin before hitting Ira. Stumblebat hits his Hero Watch symbol and is engulfed in blue light. When it disappears, Freezeghost stands in his place. Freezeghost: Freezeghost! He emits a gust of frost breath at Ira while she is down, freezing her as she holds her arm out in an attempt to grab him. Freezeghost then grabs her and throws her down the big hole in the cave. Freezeghost reverts back to Ben in a flash of blue light as he runs towards Magnus. We see a red office building from the outside and zoom into one of the windows. Vance Vetteroy, a middle-aged man, is typing somethinng on a computer. Vance: Figures I'd be the last one here. (mutters something indistinct) He hears a loud knock on the window. Staying in place, Vance refuses to flinch in fear. The camera pans slightly to show Sevenseven hovering outside. Vance: If you're an alien, go away! I've had a really bad experience with you guys in the past. Sevenseven blasts the window to pieces and climbs in. Sevenseven: I don't want to hurt you, but I need your help. Vance: (slighly shaky) What would an... alien like you need from an average Joe like m-me? Sevenseven hands him the USB drive from earlier. Sevenseven: People need to know the truth. Vance: What truth? He inserts the drive into the outlet on the CPU. An option saying "Would you like to download file?" comes up. Vance clicks 'Yes'. The file begins to download. Vance: I'm not exactly sure- Sevenseven: -Just wait and see. The video begins playing, showing footage of Fistrick and his gang holding Sandra hostage, with Ben and his team facing them. Like the actual event, the Null Void projector is held at her head. The camera is positioned such that the former's backs are facing us. Vance: Wasn't this the day Ben 23 disappeared? Sevenseven nods and points to the top of the screen, where Captain Nemesis is on top of a building.mIn the video, Ben stops a few feet away from the Null Void portal. Sevenseven pauses the video and zooms to Captain Nemesis. He unpauses the video and slows down the speed to half of the original, as Captain Nemesis shoots Ben into the portal. Vance: Captain Nemesis? In the video, Ben stops a few feet away from the Null Void portal. Sevenseven pauses the video and zooms to Captain Nemesis. He unpauses the video and slows down the speed to half of the original, as Captain Nemesis shoots Ben into the portal. The video ends there. Vance: Wow, I actually thought this new hero was going to do great things for our city. I even got his autograph. Sevenseven: You need to post this on the Internet. Vance: Oh, I'll do way more than just that. I'll write a story on it, and tell the guys at Channel 3. Sevenseven: I'd prefer if you keep me anonymous. It'd be better for the both of us. Vance nods. Sevenseven: One more thing, you should do this somewhere else. You're exposed here. Magnus is at the village from earlier. Nobody else is there, indicating that they were all captured. Magnus is distraught, sitting by the fire, holding his pocket watch, looking at the picture of his wife. Near him are his blaster, binoculars and grapple. Freezeghost arrives from the sky. He lands next to Magnus and reverts back to Ben. Ben: I'm sorry, Magnus. I couldn't find your weapons or Fadpoc. Magnus sighs, looking away. Ben sits next to him and puts a hand on his shoulder. Magnus nudges his shoulder away. Vance is finishing his last paragraph on his Captain Nemesis article, at a different place than before, a few floors above, away from the window. Vance: I hope Casey won't mind me using his computer. Suddenly, there is an explosion at the window. Vance turns to see the wall behind him open wide. Captain Nemesis flies into the building and lands near Vance as the roof above them begins collapsing. Vance: What do you want? Nemesis: Oh, no, no, no. This isn't about what I'' want. It's about what ''you want. Vance: Just cut to the chase. You don't want me to publish my story, right? And if I do what you say, you'll spare me? Well, forget it. You purposely hired those gangsters to nab Sandra Tennyson, just to lure Ben 23. Once he was in your trap, you shot Ben into the portal and "saved" Sandra. Captain Nemesis raises his eyebrows slightly, surprised but uninterested. A piece of the roof from the floor drops on the computer Vance was using, crushing it. Vance jumps out of his seat, startled. Nemesis: I'm surprised you figured all that out, though either way, you're still going to die. Vance: Kill me, then. I already told the guys at Channel 3. You're going to be all over the news. Nemesis: Yeah, about that. You see, I was there when you called. To them, you were a liar. Vance: "Were"? Captain Nemesis, with great force, strikes through Vance's heart, though we don't see this as the camera focuses on both their faces. Vance's mouth widens with a few stammers as he drops to the ground. Nemesis: No-one can get in the way of my plans. The camera is positioned behind him as he flies out of the room through the broken wall, as the entire building collapses around the camera. THE END! Major Events *Copy Copy, Orbit Man, SmokeStack, Cosmic Man, Charcoal Man, Stumblebat and Freezeghost make their debuts. *Blukic, Driba, Fadpoc, Limus, Ira, Edink and Vance make their debuts. Character Debuts *Blukic *Driba *Fadpoc *Limus *Ira *Edink *Vance Vetteroy Hero Watch Alien Debuts *Copy Copy *Orbit Man *SmokeStack *Cosmic Man *Charcoal Man *Stumblebat *Freezeghost Minor Events *Sevenseven gets a translator. *Vance is killed by Captain Nemesis. Characters *Ben Tennyson *Tetrax Shard *Sevenseven *Plumbers **Magnus Declan **Blukic (first appearance) **Driba (first appearance) *Will Harangue *Fadpoc (first appearance) *Vance Vetteroy (first appearance; killed) *Sandra Tennyson (video footage only; cameo) Villains *Captain Nemesis *Omega Squad **Limus (first appearance) **Ira (first appearance) **Edink (first appearance) *Fistrick (video footage only; cameo) **Corvo (video footage only; cameo) **Hoodlum (video footage only; cameo) Aliens Used *Copy Copy (first appearance) *Orbit Man (first appearance) *SmokeStack (first appearance) *Cosmic Man (first appearance) *Charcoal Man (first appearance) *Stumblebat (first appearance) *Freezeghost (first appearance; x2; second time cameo) Allusions *Seagle's Mini-Mart is named after Steven T. Seagle, who is part of Man of Action. Trivia *Unlike the main timeline: **Arburia was destroyed by the Incurseans instead of the Great One. **Vance Vetteroy works for the Bellwood Gazette. Category:Episodes Category:Ben 23: Hero Generation